Food and travel captivate Janet Podolak, who chronicles both for The News-Herald. Get the back story of her three decades of stories here. Guest bloggers and fellow News-Herald staffers also periodically share details of their trips.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

cruising on new ship

This weekend I'll be cruising to nowhere aboard the new Celebrity Solstice from Fort Lauderdale. It's a chance for press and others to have a firsthand look at this new ship with its half acre of lawn on its 15th deck and its on board glassblower from the Corning Museum. The new ship begins its 7 day sailings of the eastern Caribbean Nov. 23.

Now that autumn leaves topped with a layer of snow have covered my lawn it will be a nice opportunity to sit on the ship's lawn patio, do a little lawn bowling and try my hand on a three-hole putting course. Florida weather is usually pretty nice this time of year

I just hope the remnants of Hurricane Paloma, which pounded the Cayman Islands earlier this week, haven't come to Florida to meet us.

The Solstice is a big ship with a capacity of 2800 passengers. A full 85 percent of its staterooms have verandas. It's the first of the Solstice class ships with the Celebrity Equinox to follow this August and the Celebrity Eclipse ready for launch in 2010. I'm told the entire ship is wi-fi enabled, so Ill have my handy computer with me to tell you all about it. Let me know your questions — about this ship or cruising in general and I'll have answers for you. There will be lots of folks on board to help me with the answers, so please fire away.

Celebrity has always been known for its excellent food so it's no surprise to find that This ship has 10 dining venues, including an onboard creperie and a gelateria for those tasty Italian ices. Four specialty restaurants will require reservations and entail a surcharge. Get more information at CelebritySoltstice.com